Page 110 - Dimensi Baharu Zakat di Malaysia

© DIMENSI BAHARU ZAKAT DI MALAYSIA
ISBN 978-967-2959-04-5

it belongs to the non-Muslims and all profits that come from halal
activities are subjected to zakah. Financial institutions may use these
resources for business purposes (Interview B2, May 31, 2018). Such
a view is actually consistent with the fatwa of contemporary Islamic
scholars such as Yusuf al-Qardawi who is of the opinion that zakah
may also be taken from non-Muslims. In this case, zakah is treated
similar to that of state taxation (Al-Qardawi, 1994).
Looking at the nature of institutions which opted the latter
strategy (A1, B2, C2), it is clear that they actually belong to the
predominantly Muslims shareholders or Government Link
Corporations by which non-Muslims shareholders are not
significant. No segregation between Muslims and Non-Muslims
share will eventually contribute to a bigger sum of zakah payment.
It is however for the respective institutions (and their stakeholders)
to choose according to their preference.

Zakah Rate

Table 4: Zakah Rate
Zakah Rate Institutions
(Percent) A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2 C3 C4
2.5 / / /
2.5775 / / / / /
Source: Interview

Based on our research findings (Table 4), five institutions have
used 2.5775 percent as zakah rate. They reasoned that this is due to
the current practice of using Gregorian financial year as to determine
the hawl period, unlike the classical annual zakah rate of 2.5 percent
which is understandably based on lunar calendar. The former
decision is actually consistent with the zakah ruling announced in
the 1984 First Zakat Conference organized in Kuwait, and later
upheld by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic
Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) (AAOFI, 2008). Such a decision is
not however shared by all scholars including al-Qardawi and

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